Liu
Lobbin Liu is a graphic designer based in Brooklyn. She sets her sights on not only something conventionally appealing but also something that people usually ignore, avoid, or consider taboo. In her works, you see how ordinary as well as unconventional sparks can be projected onto her practices and how the way of working influences the critical sight of her daily life. Intentionally or not, her works are rooted in the moments of discomfort within conventional beauty and allure. She seeks the poetic within the failures, dilemmas, confusions, clumsiness, frustrations, and stupidities that she deals with every day.
Lobbin works in visual design, digital interactives, spatial graphics, performance, and more. Her works try to create unconventional experiences by fusing senses and by merging disciplines. Her collaboration with scientists, engineers, and musicians reimagines and breaks the boundary of what role design plays in various contexts. Her works have been juried and awarded by Tokyo TDC, New York TDC, GDC committees, etc, and have been exhibited in New York, Tokyo, Beijing, Los Angeles, Paris, Shanghai, and more. She has been invited to talk and critique at multiple academic and artistic institutions in the United States like Rhode Island School of Design, Parsons, New York University, Boston University, etc., and in China like Shanghai Institute of Visual Art, Graphic Design in China Committee, Shenzhen Technology University and more. Lobbin holds an MFA from the Yale School of Art and a BFA from RISD.
Lobbin also publish under the name lob_in Press and work on branding under the name FDMT Design. To request for our work samples, please email lobbinliu@gmail.com
- 2024
- publication
- ๐๐๐ถ๐๐ฝ ๐ถ๐๐น ๐น๐๐พ๐๐ ๐น๐๐
๐พ๐ธ๐๐๐น ๐พ๐ ๐ป๐ถ๐พ๐๐ ๐๐ถ๐๐๐, ๐ป๐ถ๐ท๐๐๐, ๐ป๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐ธ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐๐ (๐๐ธ๐๐พ๐
๐๐), ๐๐๐๐ฝ, ๐ถ๐๐น ๐ธ๐ฝ๐พ๐๐น๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐พ๐๐๐๐ถ๐๐๐๐
- We all must die. However, we tend to avoid discussing this tangible evidence of mortality in our vibrant daily lives. Instead, our languages embellish the death with euphemistic phrasing to soften the reality. We affirm denial by describing a โloved oneโ lying in a โslumber roomโ that โlooks asleepโ until the โservice,โ after which a โcoachโ transports the โremainsโ to a โmemorial parkโ for deposition in a โspaceโ that has been โopened.โ People โpass away,โ โmove on,โ or are said to be โgoing to a better place.โย
This linguistic approach extends especially to childrenโs literature, where death and dying are often neglected or thinly coated with metaphoric, embellished, or humorous expressions. Such portrayals may downplay the consequences of lethal behavior, transforming a sledgehammer into a mere creator of a silly bump on Tom Catโs head. They may romanticize traumatizing moments, depicting angels greeting a seriously ill mother in bed and leading her away among flowers and glows. The dying process of unwelcome characters may be disregarded, with the evil witch thrust into an oven, the malicious stepmother forced to wear โred dancing shoesโ made of hot iron, and the notorious wolf meeting his end through disembowelmentโโโthese dramatic conclusions in childrenโs stories symbolize an innocent but cruel victory, showing no mercy to the antagonistsโ death, which is almost portrayed as joyful for all.
In this anthology, I curated texts depicting the death and dying of animal friends, human friends, family members, or oneself in American childrenโs literature published between 1950sโโโ2000s. Is it necessary to depict death in childrenโs books, and why? In comparison to adult literature, where audiences can reason, rationalize, and deal with abstraction, the intention of the denial (or acceptance) of death in childrenโs texts may vary. And how do these texts tastefully, truthfully, or artistically deal with the subject of death?ย